## Facts

- John Medina operated a barber shop.
- David McAvoy, a customer, saw and picked up a pocketbook lying on a table in the shop and showed it to Medina.
- After Medina asked where it was found, McAvoy put the pocketbook back in the same spot and indicated it was found there.
- Medina took the pocketbook, counted the money, and agreed (at McAvoy’s request) to keep it for the owner, deliver it if the owner returned, and otherwise advertise it.
- The parties agreed the pocketbook had been intentionally placed on the table by a transient customer and then accidentally left behind.
- The true owner was not located despite efforts.
- McAvoy later demanded the money from Medina three times; Medina ultimately refused to give it to McAvoy.
- The trial court entered judgment for Medina, and McAvoy appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether a pocketbook intentionally placed on a shop table and later forgotten is “lost” property giving the finder a superior right of possession over the shopkeeper.
2. Whether such property is “mislaid” so that the shopkeeper, as possessor of the premises, has the superior right to hold it for the true owner.

## Decision

- The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts affirmed judgment for Medina.
- The court held the pocketbook was mislaid, not lost, because it was intentionally placed on the table and then inadvertently left.
- As between the finder and the shopkeeper, the shopkeeper had the better right to possess the pocketbook to safeguard it for the true owner.

## Legal Principles

- A finder of lost property generally has a right to possess it against all but the true owner.
- Property is lost when it is unintentionally dropped or otherwise separated from the owner without intentional placement at the location where it is found.
- Property is mislaid when the owner intentionally places it somewhere and then forgets to retrieve it.
- Mislaid property should be kept by the owner or occupier of the premises where it is found, who holds it for the benefit of the true owner; the finder does not obtain a superior possessory right against the premises owner.

## Conclusion

Because the pocketbook was intentionally placed on a shop table and only then forgotten, it was mislaid property, and the shopkeeper—not the customer who discovered it—had the superior right to possess it pending return to the true owner.


McAvoy v. Medina, 93 Mass. (11 Allen) 548 (1866)